42
Shor
ter exposure times is one of the biggest drawback. Long exposures with digital cameras
introduce undesirable noise and artifacts into a digital image. This limits the range of astro
images to the Moon, planets and bright stars.
Some tips for better digital photos:
• If you cannot remove the lens to your camera, look for a commercially available digital
T-adapter. New solutions for attaching a digital camera to a telescope are becoming
available as time goes by.
• If the camera is not directly coupled to the eyepiece, keep it as close to the
e
yepiece as possible and center the image to be photographed to minimize vignetting
(darkening of the edges of the photo).
•
Try to block ambient light (from street lights, house, etc.) from the eyepiece and the
camera with a piece of cardboard, a screen, etc.
• Keep extra (charged) batteries on hand for your camera as digital cameras often drain
batteries in a short period of time. Rechargeable Lithium batteries provide power for a
longer period than non-rechargeable batteries. If practical, use an AC adapter.
• Avoid short-focus eyepieces.They present many difficulties for digital cameras.
• If using manual focus, set to infinity. Otherwise, using the camera's autofocus is OK.
• Experiment with your camera's exposure, brightness and /or contrast settings. Keep notes
for future reference.
• Clean eyepieces and camera lens as needed.
• Many digital cameras have a manual ISO setting. Short exposures times work the best.
• Use your camera's highest image quality and lowest compression settings. Although this
fills up your camera's memory more quickly, it produces the best quality photos.
• Use the camera's timer or remote shutter release (if available for your camera) to minimize
vibration.Wireless shutter releases may be available for some model digital cameras.If you
do not have a shutter release, use the camera’s timer (sometimes called “self-timer”), which
is available with most digital cameras. The timer may also help minimize vibration.
Photography with Meade’s AutoStar Suite™
The AutoStar Suite with Meade LPI™ (Lunar Planetary Imager) or Meade Deep Sky Imager™
turns your Meade LX90 telescope, AutoStar and PC into even more powerful and easy-to-use
astronomical instrument.
LPI (
Fig. 17b) and Deep Sky Imager (Fig. 17a) combine the power of an electronic
astronomical imager with the simplicity of a web cam. Check out the following imager features:
• Achieve great results the first time out on the Moon, planets, brighter deep-sky objects and
terrestrial targets.
•
Easy to use with real-time displa
y of object on your PC screen. Just center, focus and shoot.
• Magic Eye software-assisted focusing.
•
Automatic and manual exposure control from .001 to 15 seconds (up to 450x longer than web
cams).
•
Automatically takes multiple exposures.
AutoStar Suite Software includes powerful tools to help you get the most from your Meade LX90
telescope:
• Sophisticated planetarium program with over 19 million objects.
• Select objects from the planetarium display and the telescope slews to those objects.
• Create time-lapse mo
vies of objects
, such as Jupiter
• Create your own Guided Tours.
• Advanced Image Processing Software including Unsharp Masking, Convolution Filtering and
many other features.
• Control all AutoStar functions from your PC.
• Talking Telescope software translates AutoStar text to synthesized speech through PC
speaker.
• Includes a cable to connect your LX90 model to your PC.
Fig. 17b: The Lunar
Planetary Imager.
Fig. 17a: Meade Deep
Sky Imager
